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Batman
, "What Is Reality?" The Caped Crusader The World's Greatest Detective''Batman: Mask of the Phantasm , "Hard as Nails" Gaff Morgan , "The Forgotten" John Smith , "Zatanna" Matches Malone , "Shadow of the Bat, Part I" | species = Human | hair = Black (White in old age) | eyes = BlackIn , and / BlueIn , , , and | relatives = Thomas Wayne (father) Martha Wayne (mother) Alfred Pennyworth (guardian) Dick Grayson (ward) Tim Drake (ward) Susan Maguire (temporary wife) Terry McGinnis (biological son) Matt McGinnis (biological son) | base = Gotham City | affiliation = Justice League | counterpart = Justice Lord | abilities = Genius-level intelligence Master detective Peak human physical condition Master martial artist Multilingualism (English, Kaznian, Japanese, Spanish) | weaponry = Various gadgets High-Tech Batsuit Utility belt '''Batman', otherwise known as Bruce Wayne, was a Gotham City vigilante who rose up to fight gangsters, costumed criminals, metahuman threats, and eventually even gods, alternate universe despots and intergalactic tyrants. HISTORY Early life Bruce Wayne was born to the wealthy Wayne family, the son of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Young Bruce Wayne would often watch the television adventures of the Gray Ghost with his father; Bruce would take many ideas from this show later. , "Beware the Gray Ghost" On the way home from seeing the film The Mark of Zorro, Bruce watched as his parents were gunned down by a mugger. , "For the Man Who Has Everything" Some say that Bruce died that night with his parents, and in his place, Batman was born. Batman later told Wonder Woman that he hadn't been a "kid" since that day. Young Master Bruce was taken home to Wayne Manor, where he was raised by the Waynes' faithful guardian and butler, Alfred Pennyworth. Bruce learned many arts and sciences with the goal of eliminating the crime that took his parents from him. He learned from masters in their fields, such as escape artistry from Zatara and martial arts from Yoru Sensei in Japan and The Master in Nanda Parbat. , "Night of the Ninja" , "Dead Reckoning" While he trained with Zatara, he and his mentor's daughter Zatanna became very close, and the two would later work together in the Justice League. , "This Little Piggy" Bruce very nearly gave up his plan to become a force for justice in the night when he nearly found happiness with Andrea Beaumont. When Andrea walked out of his life, he became even more determined and dove headfirst onto the path of becoming Batman. One day while Bruce was exploring the recently discovered bat-infested caverns below Wayne Manor, Alfred informed him that Andrea would be leaving both he and Gotham behind. Recalling the omen of bats bursting from the belly of the caverns, when he decided to give up his life as a crimefighter to be with Andrea, Bruce set up an appropriate identity to strike fear into the hearts of "superstitious and cowardly" criminals. He donned a suit made to look like a giant bat and built his secret headquarters, the Batcave, in the caverns below the Manor. Some time after this, he would be reunited with the woman who almost prevented Batman. After being accused of murdering several members of the Valestra gang, Batman was able to determine that the real assassin, the Phantasm, was actually his former love Andrea Beaumont. When he confronted her, who was in a heated battle with the Joker, she said that vengeance was all she had left before she disappeared with a detained Joker as an abandoned theme park exploded in their wake. Eventually, Bruce took in Dick Grayson as his ward after Dick's parents were killed. He eventually took Dick as his partner, Robin. , "Robin's Reckoning" New adventures Batman spent years keeping the people of Gotham City safe from common criminals and bizarre villains. He had several partners and occasional imitators, such as Batwoman,Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman but his most common partner was Barbara Gordon, who had officially taken the job at his side as Batgirl. While on another mission, Batman would rescue the young Tim Drake from Two-Face, who had made an attempt to kill the boy. The young boy found himself inspired by Bruce's desire to stand up to people like Two-Face. In combination with his own rebellious nature, Tim would unwittingly steal the Robin costume from the Batcave and take up the mantle as the second Robin. Receiving Tim as his new sidekick, Batman gave the young boy three rules: "Rule number one: You give me everything you've got. Rule number two: Then you give me more. And rule number three: I make the rules". , "Sins of the Father" Joining up For a short amount of time, Dick Grayson returned to Gotham as Nightwing to assist his former mentor. While he was a welcome addition, the two of them never truly seemed to forget the argument that caused Dick to leave. , "Old Wounds" Despite this, the partnership remained stable. Nightwing would spend a decent amount of time in Gotham, but he would later leave to establish himself in another city. Batman would later find himself in Metropolis, having followed the Joker to the city. While his long-time nemesis struck a deal with Lex Luthor, Batman would find himself working with Superman to thwart the plot. , "World's Finest" After foiling the Joker's plans to kill the Man of Steel and destroy Metropolis, he would return to the city a couple of times to stop villains from his own rogue's gallery. He would also form an unlikely partnership with the young Static when another case brought the heroes into one another's home city. While these two partnerships did not usually start off well, Batman would eventually learn to respect their abilities and would trust both of them with his secret identity. , "The Big Leagues", "Hard as Nails" Batman had also worked with other superheroes, such as the demon Etrigan and the Creeper. , "The Demon Within" It is later revealed that Batman was acquainted with many more of the world's greatest heroes. This group of heroes would later come together to foil an alien plot to take over Earth. Forming a new partnership, they became the founding members of the Justice League. Saving the world Over the course of a few months, Batman had detected several security breaches in Wayne Tech's deep-space monitoring network. While investigating the Wayne Tech Metropolis sub-station, he encountered three scientists speaking a strange language. These scientists tampered with the station's antenna and, when confronted, displayed superhuman strength and resilience. Though Superman arrived to assist, he was incapacitated by J'onn J'onzz' telepathic contact, while Batman was unable to prevent the scientists from destroying the antenna. After the antenna's destruction, Superman gave Batman a signal watch to call him for help if he needed it. Batman tracked the scientists to an abandoned S.T.A.R. Labs facility where he found the scientists being held in stasis pods. He was attacked by a shape-shifting sentry and rendered unconscious, but not before signaling Superman with the watch. Superman found the unconscious Batman at the S.T.A.R. Labs facility, just as a meteor crashed to Earth in Metropolis Park. Superman left Batman with an ambulance crew and flew off to investigate the meteor. Just as the medic was about to look under Batman's mask, he reached up and grabbed her hand, saying "Don't even think about it". When the Imperium's attack walker emerged from the meteor, incapacitated Superman and began raining destruction down on Metropolis, Batman took off in the Batwing, which he seemed to have summoned while lying on the gurney. Batman began firing missiles on the walker, and then two more walkers emerged from the meteor. When military air and armor units arrived on the scene, Batman followed Superman, who had mysteriously left the battle without explanation. Batman tracked Superman to a military base in the mountains outside Metropolis where they found more humans in stasis pods and the imprisoned J'onn J'onzz. After freeing J'onzz and learning of the Imperium, the trio were stopped by Imperium forces posing as military personnel. , "Secret Origins, Part I" Outnumbered, Batman fled with the incapacitated J'onzz in the Batwing while Superman covered their escape. The Batwing was pursued by Imperium craft and shot down, but rescued by John Stewart and Hawkgirl before the crippled Batwing crashed. Batman witnessed the other heroes battling the Imperium craft and the appearance of Wonder Woman. The Flash arrived at the end of the battle, having retrieved the Batwing's severed wing. After J'onzz informed the assembled heroes of the Imperium's invasion of Mars, their eventual defeat and their inadvertent release by Earth astronauts, the Imperium's factories began manufacturing smoke to block out the sun's rays. The heroes split up to disable the factories. Batman went to Giza, Egypt with Wonder Woman and J'onzz. The trio infiltrated the factory and found the Ion Matrix Crystal, a vital component of the plant. Batman and Wonder Woman provided a diversion to allow J'onzz to remove the crystal. As he removed the crystal, J'onzz was incapacitated by Imperium forces. Batman then covered Wonder Woman and J'onzz's escape from the plant, but was himself trapped inside and cornered by Imperium forces. J'onzz reported that Batman was dead, , "Secret Origins, Part II" but in truth, he had mentally shielded Batman to prevent the Imperium forces from detecting him. Batman remained hidden until the Imperium arrived on Earth. He then revealed himself and reversed the ion charge in the Ion Matrix Crystal, causing the plant to burn off the smoke it had been producing. With the sun shining again, the heroes defeated the Imperium and freed their human prisoners, then mopped up the remaining Imperium forces around the globe. Inspired by a general's speech about vigilance and the possible return of the invaders, Batman had the Watchtower constructed by Wayne Enterprises, hiding the funding as a "line item in the aerospace R&D budget". Batman invited the other six heroes who had repelled the invaders to the station. With this, the seven heroes formed the Justice League. Claiming he wasn't a "people person", Batman did not officially join the League, though he did offer to be on call when the League needed his help. , "Secret Origins, Part III" Batman was quick to place himself in danger, despite the awe-inspiring powers of his teammates. During the Atlantis usurpation, Batman put a stop to the melting of the polar ice caps. , "The Enemy Below, Part II" On another occasion, Batman single-handedly defeated five dangerous criminals before being surprised by an Amazon-trained criminal while managing to take her necklace as a clue to her identity. , "Fury, Part I" During his time with the Justice League, Batman showed his distrust of Superman. After Superman was brainwashed by Darkseid , "Legacy" Batman began carrying a piece of Kryptonite, which he acquired from Lex Luthor. , "Tabula Rasa, Part II" However, Batman still held a deep respect for the Man of Steel, especially after he had seemingly died at the hands of Toyman. But, regardless of his respect, Batman remained stubborn in his disbelief in Superman's death, and refused to mourn for him for quite a while. , "Hereafter" During the Thanagarian invasion of Earth, Batman was forced to reveal his identity to his teammates and provide the Batcave as a temporary meeting place and battleground when the Thanagarians tried to take them down. , "Starcrossed, Part II" After successfully retaking the Watchtower from Thanagarian forces, Batman piloted the Watchtower through the Earth's atmosphere in an attempt to plunge it into a Hyperspace Bypass, a city-wide machine that would generate a wormhole through Earth. As Batman lost consciousness due to the heat surrounding him, Superman rescued him as the Watchtower destroyed the Bypass. , "Starcrossed, Part III" With the Watchtower's destruction and Hawkgirl's resignation from the League, Batman and the five other members reformed the Justice League with a new Watchtower and an expanded roster of heroes. Batman was instrumental in recruiting Green Arrow who, along with other human Justice League members, helped keep the League from becoming an autonomous metahuman army. , "Initiation" He also succeeded in demonstrating to Amanda Waller that Cadmus was being used as a tool to further Lex Luthor's personal agenda to discredit and destroy the Justice League. , "Panic in the Sky" Waller was so impressed with Batman that she created Project Batman Beyond to ensure that the world would always have a Batman. , "Epilogue" Late adventures Batman's partnerships would end following Robin's kidnapping by the Joker and Harley Quinn. Tracking them to the abandoned Arkham Asylum, the Joker revealed that he had brainwashed and genetically altered Tim to resemble the Joker, in an effort to have his own son, and had learned Batman's secret identity. Vowing to break the Joker, the Dark Knight and the Clown Prince of Crime had their final fight. In the end, however, the Joker was killed by Tim with a weapon intended for Batman. After Tim was mentally restored by Doctor Leslie Thompkins, Batman forbade him from ever being Robin again, and later ended his partnership with Batgirl.Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker towards the end of his career.]] In his middle age, suffering from the effects of a hard life of crime-fighting, Batman developed a powered suit that augmented his physical abilities and allowed him to continue the never-ending battle for a while longer. At this time, his corporate rivalry with Derek Powers began, and Wayne Enterprises resisted a bid for corporate takeover. Injuries suffered through the long decades of physical punishment and an ailing heart finally took their toll, and even the suit couldn't compensate any longer. While attempting to rescue his old friend Veronica Vreeland's daughter Bunny from kidnappers, Batman suffered from a mild heart attack and was forced to point a gun at a common thug to save Bunny and himself. After being forced to rely on the weapon of his parents' cowardly murderer, Batman was ashamed and vowed to never again wear the cowl. , "Rebirth, Part I" Passing the mantle of the Bat , "The Man Who Killed Batman"}} When Bruce hung up the mantle of Batman, Gotham City was without a Dark Knight for twenty years. Bruce became a recluse, shut off in Wayne Manor. During one of his yearly pilgrimages to the spot where his parents were murdered, he met a dog that he saved from a dog fighter; Bruce took the dog in and named him Ace. , "Ace in the Hole" Chance brought teenaged Terry McGinnis to the gates of Wayne Manor, where he learned of Bruce's past secret life. After Terry suffered the loss of his father, Bruce reluctantly agreed to allow him to take up mantle of Batman. He then served as a mentor and informant for the successor to his legacy. , "Rebirth, Part II" For years, Bruce coordinated with Terry, supplying advice and direction from the Batcave while Terry worked in the field. He also ran the labs and developed new gadgets for Terry to use in the new crusade against crime. During their adventures, Bruce would help Terry defeat modern adversaries and even some of his own rogues, such as Mr. Freeze, , "Meltdown" Ra's al Ghul, , "Out of the Past" and the Joker, reborn through a chip implanted in Tim Drake all those years ago. The elderly Bruce occasionally ventured into the field to support Terry. His sense of duty and self-sacrifice ever present, he once donned a suit of armor to rescue Terry from Inque, despite Inque's metahuman power and the strain produced on his already-damaged heart. , "Disappearing Inque" At some time after the arrest of Paxton Powers Bruce took back control of Wayne-Powers renaming it Wayne Enterprises. After regaining control of the company he took the position of CEO and Chairman of the Board. Subsequently, he and Terry had to cope with the return of his greatest enemy The Joker and an attempt by Jordan Pryce to seize control of the company and kill Bruce. These problems were dealt with and presumably Bruce returned to day to day business operations. As Bruce continued to age, he suffered a kidney failure. When it was discovered that Terry was not just a suitable donor but a perfect one, their relationship reached its weakest point; Terry, like Dick Grayson before him, felt betrayed, manipulated and outright used. He set off to uncover the truth from someone willing to reveal it. Terry confronted Amanda Waller and learned the truth about his heritage. Years earlier, Waller realized the world would always need a Batman. Taking fate into her own hands (unbeknownst to Bruce), she gathered a sample of Bruce's DNA, after a battle that left Batman in need of medical attention. Using her Cadmus connections, Waller arranged for a nanotech solution to be injected into Warren McGinnis, in the guise of a flu shot, that would replicate his reproductive genetic material into an exact copy of Bruce's. Thus, Terry was born, Bruce's biological son, sharing half his genetic code. Terry returned to Wayne Manor with a new sense of purpose. Bruce wondered about the fate of Gotham, and Terry replied, "I've got it covered. Always". Their relationship seemed repaired; Bruce had truly become the father Terry had lost long ago. It was later confirmed by the production staff that Bruce's still excellent detective skills meant he was aware of Terry's true heritage and had been for some time, but had remained silent out of respect for Warren McGinnis, plus he wanted Terry to find his own way in life and become his own man. Category:CHARACTER